Volunteers march through the streets of Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, on the occasion of the International Volunteer Day on 5 December 2005. (Photo: UN Volunteers Nepal)

Kathmandu, Nepal: We have undertaken a series of activities in Nepal for IVD this year, such as:

A workshop on voluntarism and MDGs was led by the secretary of the National Planning Commission in Nepalgunj. Fifty participants from the District Development Councils, three NGOs, and volunteers from the government's volunteer arm, the National Development Volunteers Service (NDVS), attended the successful event.

An interaction programme on promoting volunteerism for achieving MDGs was initiated by the Returned UN Volunteers Association in Nepal (RUNVAN) with the Kirtipur Volunteer Society whose project was to build a maternity hospital in the municipality. This will help them to respond better to MDGs # 4, 5 & 8 and developing a better and closer cooperation with an active network of volunteers in Nepal.

The NDVS, with a group of other volunteer involving agencies, conducted a voluntary drive to distribute food to more than 100 street children in Kathmandu. The street children are being taken care of by the village school with their college students’ scholarship programme, which provides scholarship to deserving intelligent street children.

The street children, who were very upbeat during that day, also have shown their musical talents and some of them, who were toppers in their sections, delivered some "heart-touching" messages, using their speaking skills.